'I Collected You Carefully' is a collection of handpicked petals representing data pertaining to sexual assualt in England, Scotland and Wales between 2016 and 2017. It visually demonstrates the sheer scale of the issue and number of lives effected in a way that tables of data simply cannot convey.

 

In this particlar year sexual assaults rose by 14% to a total of 121,187 . Handpicked blossom petals were chosen to represent this data because they are multitudinous. Though they look identical, close up they are unique, as each crease, gradient of colour and differing texture becomes apparent only on close inspection. 

 

Sexual violence is endemic in the UK. In 2014 the UK High Court found the Metropolitan Police to be in breach of the European Convention of Human Rights Act (article 3)  in protecting women from ‘torture, inhuman or degrading treatment.’ 

 

Six years after this finding, the rape conviction rate has dropped to only 3% in England and Wales, despite the fact that reporting of rape to the police had risen five fold by 2019. The combination of years of lack of policy response to prevent the crime, together with years of austerity measures has resulted in a lack of proper support for victims of sexual violence. This in turn has led to NGOs, Charities and Human Rights Organisations to write an open letter to the government stating that “rape has effectively been decimalised in the UK.”

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